From: George Ogata <g_ogata@...>
Date: 2004-08-12T07:51:13+09:00
Subject: Re: Is this potentially a problem?

"DaZoner" <nobody@nowhere.com> writes:

> I've defined a class I use that strips methods off of a class (specified by
> a string representing the class name). I use it maybe 30 times during my
> application run. However I'm concerned because it does an
> ObjectSpace.each(Class) call to make sure the specified class exists before
> trying to remove any methods. Will this call get slow as a few arrays
> containing perhaps a million FixNums get defined by the application in
> between calls? The array's data stays around as the calls to my class are
> made. I've included the source of the class below. If anyone knows an
> efficient way to determine if a class exists given its name in String form
> I'd sure appreciate seeing it.
>

Something like:

  Object.const_defined?(name) && Object.const_get(name).is_a?(Class)

You'd need to tweak it a bit to support nested class names like
C::D::E (in that case you'd need to call C::D.const_defined?('E'),
e.g.).